PRIMARY school meal prices across North Yorkshire have been frozen, in an effort to help families struggling against the recession and boost the uptake in the service.

The charge for a meal is being fixed at £2, with the discounted charge of £1.80 for siblings.

North Yorkshire County Caterers, the county council’s catering arm, which runs the school meal service, says it is able to keep charges down while increasing the quality of food being served.

County councillor Jim Clark, executive member for schools and chairman of the catering department, said North Yorkshire has a higher than average uptake of school meals already.

He said: "We are very pleased to be able to keep our school meal prices steady.

"It is a priority for the county council to help families during the economic downturn and also to make sure that our children are provided with the highest-quality nutrition.

"Good dietary habits are essential to the well-being of children and young people and the take-up of school meals is now also a factor in school inspections."

Meal take-up has been consistent despite the introduction of tough nutritional standards for school food.

Last year, North Yorkshire County Caterers increased primary school meal take up, showing growth on the previous year against the national average of 39 per cent, reaching an overall take up of 42.6 per cent.

Despite the price freeze, the council wants nutritional standards to continue to improve.

Full nutritional standards will be introduced into secondary schools from September.

These standards have been in place in primary schools for the past three years.

North Yorkshire County Caterers employs a nutritionist to analyse and advise on the ingredients used in meal preparation.

It also uses focus groups of cooks and children, which test the attractiveness of each menu item.

The council says an example of recent improvements made is the provision of locally-sourced free range eggs, which led to it receiving a Good Egg Award from the animal welfare charity Compassion in World Farming.

All school meals are made from local produce.

Two thirds of all meat and poultry used in North Yorkshire County Caterer’s menus is sourced from within the county and more than 90 per cent comes from the wider region.